Clear Lake council to discuss Surf District hotel pre-development agreement

CLEAR LAKE — The Clear Lake City Council holds their first meeting of 2025 tonight and will be asked to approve a pre-development agreement for the hotel that’s part of the Surf District project.

While the state grant for the Destination Iowa Creative Placemaking Grant did not include funding for a hotel, the concept for a reimagined “Oaks Hotel” was also presented.

Acting City Administrator Jacob Widman says staff has been working on making the hotel concept a reality with the Clear Lake Hotel Development LLC being identified as a potential developer for the Oaks Hotel. That LLC is headed by George Janssen of MarketPointe Incorporated. Widman says the development team has experience with hotel development in the Upper Midwest with access to numerous nationally recognized hotel brands.

Widman says by entering into the pre-development agreement with the developer, the city is granting the developer the limited-term opportunity to exclusively work on the essential functions necessary for bringing the hotel to the Surf District.

The agreement would not commit any city funds to the project at this point nor guarantee that the project will be able to proceed, as it merely allows the developer to conduct due diligence to see if the project makes sense for them and the community.

The Clear Lake City Council meets tonight at 5:30 at City Hall.